Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Eat Like a Cave Man (Cave Diva) Week

All Diva's seem to be constantly watching their figures ... and wanting to eat divine food at the same time, right? If you are a Diva - you probably have a fine man - and some beautiful children as well. So here's a tip from the Avocado Diva for YOU!

Establish a summer week to "Eat Like A Cave Man!" - your man will love it. Your kids will too. And YOU will secretly be including a lot of raw, yummy foods into their diets while improving your Diva curves for a week.

How? - Here's the basic plan. When we have "Cave Man Week" - we eat lots of foods that are in their most original form possible. This means loads of avocados (of course - remember that they are very high in protein and make for an excellent replacement of meat). We also eat lots of other fruits and veggies. We eat things like sunflower seeds, honey, grains, water (made into tea or infusions with simple leaves), etc.

Caveman week makes for an interesting discussion with the kids. They constantly ask the Diva-cave-woman "Is this raw? Is this processed? How could a caveman make that?! No way we can eat that!" It also opens your eyes to what kind of proteins a "caveman" would have had access to - more fish, less beef. More rabbit - less pork. Protein and fat from a fruit (like an avocado) would have been precious indeed! (No life threatening chase! No loss of arrows to get one!) Meat from a large animal would have been very rare indeed - saved for festivals - not daily consumption.

If you are lucky enough (like the Diva) to live near farms, the ocean, orchards and/or other fields - or very lucky - and grow some of your own food - these make for excellent discussion points all week. The kids and the Diva will drive out to the "pick your own" farm and select some veggies and herbs. We talk about how precious this food would REALLY be if we had to grow it ourselves for weeks and months before we could pick it and eat it.

We might go fishing at the ocean or clam digging - and eat those foods - and really appreciate the work that went into a small fish or handful of clams! (The "cave-son" really likes this part of caveman week...). We've been known to harvest a bit of kelp to put in a soup to add saltiness. Plus - my man likes it because we grill a lot (Fire! Cavemen love fire.)

So the Diva wants to know - what clever ways do you use to get your kids to eat a wide variety of foods? How do you help them connect to their "inner cave man". Leave us a comment or idea. Inquiring cave-women want to know!

(PHOTE NOTE: These are ancient "molecajetes" or grinding stones/bowls from local Chumash indians - the photo was taken at the San Luis Obispo mission museum.)

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